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By Root 1317 0

I had attempted to relocate my business enterprise to Tatooine, only to be run off by Jabba. Not content to have done that, the Hutt all but crippled my cash flow for the next few years. His death, however, presented me with an opportunity to rebuild my power base, though I had to contend with the likes of Lady Valarian and a few others. Nevertheless, a few shrewd deals made during the Thrawn years and I was back on my feet. Then, just a year ago, I had the Wheel assembled in a nearby system and towed here, to Ord Mantell.”

“This is yours?” Han said.

“Most of it. Borga the Hutt has a small stake in it. Now, if the New Republic would only do something about the Yuuzhan Vong.”

Han’s smile straightened. “Some of us are trying to do just that, Bunji.”

“Is that what has brought you here—under a false identity, no less?”

“Han and I are trying to hunt down a former associate,” Roa answered.

Bunji inclined his head in interest. “Hunt down?”

“Or just locate,” Han said. “That all depends on what he says when we find him.”

“Which former associate?”

“His name’s Reck Desh.”

Bunji fell silent for a long moment. He inhaled on the cigarra and launched a jumbo smoke ring toward the ceiling. “What do you want with him?”

“It’s a long story,” Han said, “even longer than yours.”

Bunji nodded. “If I were you, Han, I wouldn’t be so quick to catch up with Reck Desh.”

Han leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “Why’s that?”

“Things have changed since the old days. Folks are engaged in activities now that wouldn’t have been tolerated then—even by riffraff like Bossk.”

“What sort of activities?”

“Such as providing information about planetary defenses, or pirating shiploads of refugees and delivering them into Yuuzhan Vong hands for sacrifices.”

The muscles in Han’s jaw bunched. Bunji continued. “Reck and the gang he runs with—they call themselves the Peace Brigade—have been colluding with Yuuzhan Vong operatives by helping to spread anti-Jedi sentiment and destabilize planetary systems in advance of invasion. In some cases, they’ve persuaded worlds to capitulate to the Yuuzhan Vong beforehand.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know where Reck is currently?” Roa asked judiciously.

“At last report, the Peace Brigade was operating in Hutt space,” Bunji said, “much to Borga’s dismay. If you’d like, I could make a few inquiries.”

Han showed him a skeptical look. “Why would you be willing to do that for us?”

Bunji shrugged. “As I say, I owe you. If that isn’t reason enough, then I’m doing it for the Wook. It near broke my hearts to hear that he had died. I’d have given anything to have had a partner like Chewbacca.”

Before Han could respond, sirens began to blare and the illumination in Bunji’s well-appointed enclave flickered. Without warning, the Jubilee Wheel shuddered as if it had been poked by the finger of a colossal hand. One of Bunji’s henchmen rushed to a nearby terminal and called up data on a display screen.

“Yuuzhan Vong attack!” he blurted.

Humans and others leapt to their feet, running every which way for exits, shelter, and the antique sideboard that held the Whyren’s Reserve and similarly exceptional libations. Directly in the path of a panicked Whiphid, Han and Fasgo were knocked to the floor.

Roa wedged his hands under Han’s arms and yanked him upright. Bunji and the more important members of his coterie were already disappearing through a gaping hatchway in the cabin’s rear wall. Han threw his pack over his shoulder and stumbled forward, only to hear the hatch lock solidly as he reached it.

“To the Happy Dagger,” Roa said from the anteroom. “I’ve no intention of being on this wheel when the Yuuzhan Vong decide to roll it downhill!”

FIFTEEN

Ord Mantell’s yellow star at its back, the New Republic task force emerged from behind the system’s fifth planet with weapons blazing. Simultaneously from around the jagged edges of the planet’s large moon, fighter squadrons raced forward to engage the invaders, the radiance of their ion drives dwindling in the night.

Batteries on the Mon Calamari battle cruiser